Floor unit



Patented sept. 6, 1932 l t y 1,876,042

U .STATES FicE'i-j HERBERT ii. BUNKERQOE JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY f ELooRUNIT i i This invention relates to metallic flooring either for thepurpose of producing-aldesire'd and, more particularly, to a solid floorunit pattern of the reticulated metallic structure; having a surface ofmetal and of concrete or appearing in the floor or for the purpose ofvother filling material. utilizing different forms of bent bars and of fAmong the objects of the invention is to channels other than those Ihave illustrated 55 provide a floor panel or unit having a surface byWay ofexample.A

of metal and of concrete or other filling ma- In the drawing: j. j'lterial which may be manufactured in the .Fig. lis a plan view` ofarportion of anA shop and laid down in units. armored floor unit partlyfilled'with concrete.

1U Another object of the invention is to pro- Fig. `2 is asection-oftheunit of Fig.1 on 60 vide an armored floor surface of metaland line 2-2showing the relation of concrete to of lling material whichhas a walking surthe metallic structure y, Q j' face of filling materialseparated by metal- Fig. 3 is aV section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1 licstructure and in which the filling materiall t is convenient rto referto the metallic 15 is in a unitary form though interspersed withstructure or skeleton of an armored floor unit' metallic structure. i bydesignating the `bottom portion thereof as 4 Other objects andadvantages of the ina base portion and the upper-most portion ventionwill be pointed out hereinafter in the thereof as a reticulatedstructure. The base description and in the claims. portion is formed bya plurality of members ing used have characteristics which are uningwebs `11 in one plane and upwardly ex-` desirable and at least limit theusefulness of tending flanges 12..` Thesemembers maybe the flooring. Forexample, some former made of flat strips with bent edges or they typesare only suited for such conditions as may be built-up from two or `morepieces of Some of the former types of armored floorarranged parallel toone another and `hav-` 701 permit the manufacture of the armoredfloormaterial or constitute standard members such' '75 ing as it isbeing laid in the ultimate position as structural channels orshipbuilding chanit is to occupy. Other forms of armoredfloornels.Depending upon the width and size ing have many individual units offilling maof Hoor unit desired, the members or channel terial in thefashion of tesselated work supbars 10 will lbe selected accordingtovsize and ported by the bars of reticulated structures. in suchnumbers as to `form a structure suf- 80 Both of these forms of armoredflooring haveiiciently strong and of a desiredfsize for anyxV apparentlimitations and the second form of particular installation.

armored flooring is undesirable for certain In the embodiment of theinvention illus? i uses because of the fact that the filling matetratedthe channel bars 10 are secured torial or concrete which fills the openspaces gether by rivets 13 engaging rthrough their 85 of the reticulatedstructure takes the form up-standing flanges 12.', It is convenient toof individual concrete units unconnected support the reticulatedstructureabove the,

from one another. While having in mind base'portion bymeans of straps 15whichthe problem of designing a practical armored may be held inplace bythe rivets 13 which v 4o floor unit which is characterized by theobsecure the channel bars 1() to one another. 90

jects primarily stated, I further propose that The upwardly extendingstraps 15 are placed my armored floor unit be devoid of thedisbctweenthe outer surfaces of the upwardly advantages inherent in thetypes of floor units extending flanges 12. Since these straps are abovereferred to. of a relatively narrow width there will be a In the drawingI have illustrated my prelong open space between adjacent flanges 12 95feri'ed form of floor unit and I wish it to be 0f adjacent channel bars10 which extends understood that theI manner by which the from one strapto another, but this space is various metallic structures are formed andof such a narrow proportion that its presence associated with oneanother may be varied does not operate detrimentally against the, tosuit the style and whim of a ,designer efficacy of .the structure. Y 2 fchannel bars, rivets 18 may be employed for fastening together bent bars16, 17, and simi-V lar fastening means19 may'be'employed-for fasteningtwo bent bars, 16, 17 to the upper end of each of the straps 15. While Ihave used rivets for this purpose it is appreciated that any othermanner of. fastening'can be utilized and'that the associated members maybe secured together by means of a welding operation or by bolts. Inorder that the open areas formed by the bent bars bordering thereticulated structure may be closed at their outer edges I providestrips of metal 20, 21 along each longitudinal edge of the gratingunit.V However'these are not indispensible since if the skeleton is tobe used to contain a filling material, temporary detachable side stripsVcan* be used for retaining thefilling material within such areas untilit has had a chance to set. This procedure may be followed in closingthe open areas appearing in the grating unit at its ends, but, as in thecase ofthe longitudinal edges, permanent vertical stripsmay be used atthe ends of the unit;

While I have just described a preferredv form ofA my metallic skeleton Iwish it '-to be .understood that one of the featuresof my invention isto provide a structure which may'be'used with or without a suitable bodyof filling materialand which when used with a suitable body of fillingmaterial it'confines f the fillingmaterial asone unitary slab. The

unitary slab is interspersed with metallicelements and by virtue of therelation of the reticulated structure tothe base portion the dividedareas created by interspersed metallic elements are in connection withone another through afsubstantial amount of filling material. This iswellillustrated in F 2.

The first two channel vbar sections from the left are shown as filled-inwith solid filling Vmaterial andthe third' and fourthl sectionsillustrate how communication is had between adjacent bent bars 16, 17and above the upwardlyV extending flanges '12 of adjacent channel bars10.' This form of floor unit permits all of the pressure directed uponthe upper surface of. a concrete area between bentfbars tobe transmittedto a footing of larger area of filling material whose lower surface isincontact with a plurality of channel bars forming the bottom of thebase portiony ofthe metallic skeleton.Y

Since the metallic' skeleton may be usedas.

a floor grating: without any filling material therewith ori maybe soldfor-the purposeof manufacturing into an:l armored. concrete floor unitin the manner described herein'be fore or may be sold as an armoredfloor unit with filling material, it is appreciated that eitherl with orwithout filling material associated with the metallic skeleton, a usefularticle of manufacture is had.

I'claim:

1. A flooring unit'comprising a base por"- tion built-up ofchannelmembers having theirV flanges secured to each other and theirwebs forming the bottomwall of the floor# ing unit, longitudinal stripsof 'metal se= cured to and bordering the full lengths of the outsideflanges of the exterior channel members, said stripsA of metal extendingaboveztheheight of the flanges, a metallic floor surfacestructure'comprising reticulated bars, said floor'suifa-Ce structurebeing ,disposed above the flanges of said channel members, strips ofmetal connecting the flangesV and surface structure at intervals spacedthroughout the surface area ofthe flooring unit, sa-idrfioor surfacestructure being within the area of said longitudinal me-v tallic strips,andfilling material imbedding the flanges of the channel members and thefloor surface structure.

2. A flooring, unit comprising a base por-k tion `having .a plurality ofchannel bars larranged alongside-of each other with their angesjextending upwardly, .said channel bars being permanently securedtogether by means connecting adjacent flanges, a reticulated structuredisposed` above said base portion and having open areas immediatelyabove the flanges of said channel bars, means connecting saidreticulated structure and said base portion, said meanscomprisingrmetallic strips extending above the exterior flanges ofv thevchannel members and strips nature. Y

' HERBERT H. BUN KER.

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